Re: How to run IDE drive from SATA connection?

This is a discussion on Re: How to run IDE drive from SATA connection? within the Hard Drive Support forums, part of the Tech Support Forum category. I recently bought a new pc which has no IDE connectors, however I have about 600gig of old hard drives

I recently bought a new pc which has no IDE connectors, however I have about 600gig of old hard drives from my old pc. I have bought an IDE to SATA adapter which I have fitted, it has an adapter which fits to the hard drive with a place to plug a power supply and the SATA cable. I have also powered the HDD with another power supply. It has been formatted by windows. This is where I am stuck, the power supply for the adapter is a FDD cable and windows is seeing it as a floppy disk, BIOS doesn't detect it at all.

the power cable used to power your adapter has absolutely nothing to do with your seeing the adapter as a floppy drive.

CAn you link me to a source of your adapter ??
most Adapters I have seen for IDE drives are boards that plug in to the motherboard.
Adapters that I have seen which have IDE & SATA are used via a USB cable to connect either SATA or IDE to a PC. They usually have a 4 pin molex that allows 5V to be supplied to a 2.5" drive should a mini IDE connector be mounted on it as well. I am wondering if you may have confused 2 separate items or someone has misled you about how this could be used

the power cable used to power your adapter has absolutely nothing to do with your seeing the adapter as a floppy drive.

CAn you link me to a source of your adapter ??
most Adapters I have seen for IDE drives are boards that plug in to the motherboard.
Adapters that I have seen which have IDE & SATA are used via a USB cable to connect either SATA or IDE to a PC. They usually have a 4 pin molex that allows 5V to be supplied to a 2.5" drive should a mini IDE connector be mounted on it as well. I am wondering if you may have confused 2 separate items or someone has misled you about how this could be used

Thanks for that link .. now I know what we are talking about .. first time I have come across one of these, although I am not surprised that they are now available considering the way motherboard manufacturers are pushing us away from old ideas and onto the latest technology. Someone has to fill the gap and it's probably the same people that are driving us away from IDE towards SATA that are filling the gaps in requirements.

Do you actually have a floppy drive installed (and enabled in BIOS) on this PC? Have you tried placing a floppy inside to see if it is really the HDD that you are seeing as a floppy drive or you are just seeing that an A: drive has been allocated. It is allowable when NO FLOPPY is installed and all spare HDD allocations have been used , to use the A: & B: allocations for HDD's.
Apart from mentioning that you should ensure that the IDE cable is firmly mounted and in the correct manner have you also ensured that SATA is enabled in BIOS?
CAn you give me details about your motherboard so I can "SEE" your system too.

Thanks for that link .. now I know what we are talking about .. first time I have come across one of these, although I am not surprised that they are now available considering the way motherboard manufacturers are pushing us away from old ideas and onto the latest technology. Someone has to fill the gap and it's probably the same people that are driving us away from IDE towards SATA that are filling the gaps in requirements.

Do you actually have a floppy drive installed (and enabled in BIOS) on this PC? Have you tried placing a floppy inside to see if it is really the HDD that you are seeing as a floppy drive or you are just seeing that an A: drive has been allocated. It is allowable when NO FLOPPY is installed and all spare HDD allocations have been used , to use the A: & B: allocations for HDD's.
Apart from mentioning that you should ensure that the IDE cable is firmly mounted and in the correct manner have you also ensured that SATA is enabled in BIOS?
CAn you give me details about your motherboard so I can "SEE" your system too.

Thanks

Thanks again, not sure in what order to make this reply so I'll just answer as I can read. No I do not have a floppy disk drive installed. IDE is definately plugged in correctly as is the SATA cable. Enabled in BIOS...mmm not sure how do I do this I have gone in to it and told it to auto detect is this what you mean.
Model number for the motherboard is FOXCONN 946G27MA-FRS2H.

page 28 is the start of the BIOS section which you should try to read & understand.

page 30

Quote:

IDE Channel 0/1/2/3 Master/slave
These categories identify the HDD types of 1 IDE channel installed in the computer
system. There are three choices provided for the Enhanced IDE BIOS:
None, Auto, and Manual. “None” means no HDD is installed or set; “Auto” means
the system can auto-detect the hard disk when booting up; by choosing “Manual”
and changing Access Mode to “CHS”, the related information should be entered
manually. Enter the information directly from the keyboard and press < Enter>:

page 41 but you should start reading at page 39 .. and keep on reading so that you understand the correct function for all settings.

Quote:

[On-Chip Serial ATA Setting]
*SATA Mode
This option is used to set the Serial ATA Mode. The available setting values
are: IDE, RAID, AHCI.
*On-Chip Serial ATA
This option is used to set the On-chip Serial ATA function.
*SATA PORT Speed Settings
This option is used to set SATA port speed settings.
*PATA IDE Mode
When On-Chip Serial ATA set as “Combined Mode”, this option will be modified.
It is used to set the PATA IDE Mode. The available setting values are: Primary,
Secondary.
*SATA Port
This option is used to set the Serial ATA Port.

this card will run 4 IDE drives / either hard drives or cd/dvd drives or mixes of them

Personally I would have gone that way myself, from the start, If I wanted to add more drives to my PC ..

Don't forget though that the more accessories you add the better your power supply has to be .. you'll get away with adding "power hungry" drives initially but eventually your supply will tire and could fail with catastrophic results.